May
5 Spidey hits the cycle

The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press (courtesy of USA Today)are reporting that ads for "Spider-Man 2" will be placed atop bases at major league ballparks during games from June 11-13 as part of a promotion announced Wednesday.

The announcement of the promotion comes a week after jockeys at the Kentucky Derby won the right to wear ads on their uniforms. (I won six bucks on Imperialism!)

Is it too much? Not sure yet. We'll have to see how the movie does at the box office (in the long run -- it'll probably have a huge opening). It's understandable that baseball is trying to lure more kids to the parks, but I'm not sure this is the way to do it. Especially if it comes at the expense of hardcore hardball fans.

Ronald Blum of the AP got this quote:

"I guess it's inevitable, but it's sad," said Fay Vincent, a former baseball commissioner and former president of Columbia Pictures, which is releasing the movie. "I'm old-fashioned. I'm a romanticist. I think the bases should be protected from this."

They're also giving masks to fans, said Jacqueline Parkes, baseball's senior vice president for marketing and advertising. The ads, about 4 inches long, won't appear on home plate. It'd be funny to see someone slide into a base and come up with a webbing pattern on their butt!

Spider-Man opens June 30, and the weekend in early June was picked because it is during interleague play, which draws higher attendance than usual.